In-Work Poverty in the UK: The Stories of Working Women Using Food Banks

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to give voice to women who, despite being active in the labour market, continued to depend on charitable provisions from a food bank in Britain. Theoretically the thesis addresses this phenomenon as a matter of social injustice, and it does so by exposing and exploring the experiences of women who despite employment were still driven to need charity from a food bank. The thesis therefore engages with a gendered experience of in-work poverty and presents various lessons learning relating to social injustice in Britain. I adopt a feminist ethnographic study in two independent food banks, with the methodology comprising of both participant observation and in-depth interviews across multiple group sets. The feminist underpinning signals an innovative methodological advance in the field. The data collection was immersive to meet the objectives of the study, and intense due to the themes explored. I show how food bank usage has become a necessity for some women grappling with the precarious labour market and the in-work benefit system. This experience is degrading for women who are also workers, and this is deepened for those who are single mothers. Nevertheless, I demonstrate the honourable role of the food bank and its volunteers in a support that goes beyond the sole provision of food. The thesis explores both challenges and developments in accessing vulnerable populations, additional to the value of reflexivity in ethnography carried out in settings where the researcher and the researched are demographically diverse.